On the decision to run for the next term, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced not in the Crimea because the occupation factor of the peninsula is no longer the main thing for his election campaign. This opinion political analyst Vitaly Portnikov expressed in the column for the Crimea. Realities.

The consent of Vladimir Putin to run for the presidency of Russia can hardly be attributed to political sensations - there is no doubt that at the hour of the day the ruler will announce his nomination, there was practically no one, except for the "conspiracy". Therefore, Putin's nomination is not interesting news, and the interior - the lowest requests of workers of GAZ and the consent of the new Godunov.

It would seem, what does the Crimea have to do with it? And while that, when the decision was made to hold presidential elections, it was the image of Putin, the collector of lands, Putin of the times of the "Crimean speech" that was to become the main one in the presidential election campaign of the Russian president. If anyone does not remember - the election was specifically postponed to a date that was supposed to remind Russians that "Krymnas". It seems that it was for this reminder for future elections that the legislation was adjusted.

But now there is no question of any Crimea. And it was not in the Crimea that the ruler announced his readiness to run. And about any Crimea does not mention. There are more important problems that Putin is asking about - for example, the shameful expulsion of Russia from the Olympics.

Crimea no longer "works". The image of the land collector faded away. The annexed peninsula - for all its "sacredness" - is now of little interest to the Russian citizen, and Putin himself does not seem to be interested in. Crimea - like a suitcase without a pen. Quickly refuse it will not work, as it is "inscribed" in the Russian Constitution. Money goes to the occupied territory a lot. Dividends in domestic politics, it no longer brings. In the external - creates some problems. It is better not to remember at all about any Crimea and to give opportunity to friends of Rothenberg to earn money on the construction of the notorious bridge - maybe, they will share!.

And Putin himself has to return to his "Dokrymsky". We have already forgotten what Putin was like, so I will remind you. It was Putin at the time of the government's bet on the "working class", "Uralvagonzavod", which in the Kremlin decided to oppose "rotten pro-Western liberalism" with many thousands of protests on Bolotnaya Square. After the Crimea, the need for such a rate has disappeared, since practically all of Russian society in a "unified impulse" rallied around the "collector of land".

But anesthesia begins to recede, and one of the wealthiest, according to Western media, the rulers of the modern world again remembered the workers and went to announce the presidential ballot for the next plant. This may be the first signal that, from the revanchism of recent years, the Kremlin is returning to a policy of increasing authoritarianism within the country.

It looks like Putin has only to decide how to get rid of the Donbass and Crimea - so that the collective GAZ does not feel humiliated and deceived. But this he will do after the election - after all, he will have a lot of time.